Generally, an air conditioning system for an eco-friendly vehicle (electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, etc.) is a full automatic temperature control (FATC) system which employs an electric compressor for improving indoor cooling/heating performance thereby protecting the environment and reducing global warming, etc.
As shown in FIG. 1, the electric compressor 10 has a structure in which a controller 11, a motor 12, and a compressor 13 are integrated in order to obtain excellent space utilization, low weight, and maximized power density. The controller 11 mainly includes an electronic circuit-based PCB and electronic devices. Since the electronic circuits are susceptible to heat, cooling of the controller 11 is an important factor in improving performance of the electric compressor 10.
The controller 11 is generally cooled using both a flow of a coolant in an air conditioner and vehicle-induced airflow during operation of a vehicle. During operation of the vehicle, the controller is sufficiently cooled by a flow of a coolant and vehicle-induced airflow, so the electric compressor 10 can be normally operated.
However, when a vehicle motion stops during operation, such as when waiting for a signal light to change, there is no cooling effect by the vehicle-induced airflow, so the internal temperature of the controller 11 rapidly increases. If the temperature of the controller 11 increases beyond a normal temperature range, the controller 11 stops operating according to a fault-logic set for self-protection, and thus, the operation of the electric compressor is interrupted.
In order to re-activate the interrupted electric compressor, the controller 11 of the electric compressor 10 has to be reset after a vehicle shuts off, which is inconvenient to passengers and degrades the quality of the air conditioner.
The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and is not intended to mean that the present disclosure falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.